Clip



H. R. REDKA June 25, 1957 CLIP 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 2, 1955 Henry BY ATTORNEY will/ June 25, 1957 H. R. REDKA 2,796,645

cu? Filed June 2. 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 17 ...-.-!um!!22mm n nrmunmmuuu I i r all! HI .mlu lllllnw" INVENTOR ATTORNEY United States Patent CLIP Henry R. Redka, New York, N. Y.

Application June 2, 1955, Serial No. 512,701

3 Claims. or. 24-66) The present invention relates to a binding clip and more particularly to a clip adapted to fasten one or more sheets, pamphlets or books into a cover or onto a supporting back and to make such a fastening without the necessity of punching or in any way marking or preparing the fastened material.

There are many presently known types of binder clips which are in use; however, the majority of these are so designed that they require one or more slits or holes to be cut in the clipped material. There are many documents which are necessarily stored without cutting or punching and there are other documents, such as thicker pamphlets, magazines or the like, which are difficult to punch with the ordinarily available punches and which at the same time are advantageously stored in clip-type folders.

Known types of binding clips which do not require slits or holes have several disadvantages. Many of these clips are based on a screw principle and have threaded members which are operated by both hands and in a timeconsuming and relatively awkward manner. Others of these known types of clips are not adaptable for thicker typesof material and also are not adaptable for use with packs of material of varying thickness. Still others of the known types, even though a hole is not required, mark or mutilate the portion of the clipped material with which they come into contact.

Another disadvantage of many known types of binding clips is that in order to remove a given sheet, it is necessary to remove either all those above or beneath the given sheet. This is particularly true of the types in which the sheets must be perforated and those which use a screw device.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved binding clip.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a binding clip for use on imperforate documents.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a binding clip which will not mark or otherwise mar the bound material.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a binding clip suitable for use with a wide range of document thicknesses.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a clip from which some of the bound material can be removed without disturbing the position of the remainder.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a binding clip which is suitable for use with all of the presently used types of folders or binders.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a clip which is both simple to operate and to manufacture so that it may be inexpensively supplied for everyday use in place of more expensive and less adaptable clips.

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon an understanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described, or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice.

A preferred embodiment of the invention has been chosen for purposes of illustration and description and is shown in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specification, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of one embodiment of the invention showing the clip binding a group of documents in a folder;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the clip shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a front elevational view of the clip of Fig. 2 showing the clip binding a stack of documents;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line 44 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a rear elevational view of the clip of Fig. 4 showing the clip binding a stack of documents thicker than those of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 6-6 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged sectional view of a preferred form of resilient clip gripping member out of contact;

Fig. 8 is a view of the member of Fig. 7 in contact with a document;

Fig. 9 is a top plan View of another embodiment of the clip; and

Fig. 10 is a front elevational view of the clip of Fig. 9.

Fig. 1 shows the clip 1 attached to a standard folder 2 and binding a stack of documents 4 therein by gripping the upper edges of the documents. The clip 1 is shown in detail in Figs. 26. As seen in Figs. 2 and 4-, the clip comprises a base or mounting plate 5 adapted to be riveted by rivets 5 or otherwise fastened to a folder, binder or other suitable backing 2.

A hinged locking bar 7 is pivotally attached to the mounting plate 5 on a suitable bracket 8 at one corner of the mounting plate 5 so that the free end 10 of locking bar 7 may be swung from a closed position adjacent to the plate 5 to an open position away from the plate 5, as shown in the dash-dot lines in Fig. 3. A catch 9 is formed on or fastened to the opposite end of plate 5 from bracket 8 for locking free end 16 of bar 7 in its closed position. Locking bar 7 is loosely pivoted in bracket 8 so that it may be swung under catch 9 to its locked position. Gripping arms 11 extend outwardly from and generally at right angles to locking bar 7 to support gripping fingers 12. Gripping fingers 12 are disposed at right angles to arms 11 and parallel to locking bar 7. Gripping arm 11 and gripping finger 12 form a gripping member 13. The locking bar 7, gripping arms 11 and gripping fingers 12, termed clamping member 19 herein, preferably are formed from a single piece of steel, brass, aluminum or other suitable resilient material. The opposite ends of gripping fingers 12 preferably are provided with resilient grips 1a which make contact with the gripped documents 4 to tightly hold them in place against the folder 2 without marking or otherwise marring them. Grips 14 are made from 'a suitable resilient material, such as rubber or plastic, and they have a center opening or aperture 15 (Fig. 7) having a smaller cross section than fingers 12 so that they may be forced onto and grip the fingers 12.

in clipping a pile of documents, the lockingbar 7 is first swung upwardly clear of mounting plate 5 and the documents are slipped into place against edges 19 and 20 of catch 9 and bracket 8, respectively, and between gripping fingers 12 and mounting plate 5. The locking bar 7 is now swung downwardly so that the gripping fingers 12 contact the documents 4 and so that the free end 10 of locking bar 7 may be slipped under catch 9. In order to slip the end 10 of locking bar 7 under catch 9, the resilient grips 14 on gripping fingers 12, which are in contact with documents 4, preferably slip over the document surface so that the documents 4 are not moved as locking bar 7 is swung under catch 9 to its closed position. A preferred form of bottom surface for the resilient grips 1 4 is shown in Fig. 7. The lower surface 16 has inclined teeth 17. When the grip'14'(Fig. 4) is moved toward the right, theteeth 17 tend to slide across a document surface, however when the grip 14.is moved in the opposite direction, the points of teeth 17 tend to grip the document surface to prevent it from sliding. In Fig. 8 the resilient grip 14 is shown compressed against a document 4 by gripping fingers 12 with teeth 17 further inclined by the pressure. The points 18 of teeth 17 are inclined with respect to the surface of document 4 so that they tend to slide as the grip 14 moves to the right and so that they tend to dig into the surface as the grip is moved to the left. The grip 14, as seen in Fig. 4, is placed on the fingers 12 with the teeth 17 slanting rearwardly toward catch 9. Thus, as locking bar 7 is moved forwardly under catch 9, grip 14 slides forwardly on document 4. When locking bar 7 is in place under catch 9, the documents 4 are prevented from slipping away from their position against catch 9 and bracket 8 by points 18 of teeth 17. The teeth 17 of the grips 14 thus permit the simple swinging of locking bar 7 under catch 9 to be used to lock clip 1 without a displacement of the gripped documents during the locking.

Clip 1 may be used with a single thin document or with a thick stack of documents without requiring any adjustment. Figs. 3 and 4 show the clip engaging a relatively thin document. in this case, the necessary spring in the clip is provided by the compression of the resilient grips 14 and by the flattening of the normally curved fingers 12. The fingers 12 are shown in their normal curved position in dot-dash lines in Fig. 3 and are shown straightened out by contact with document 4 when locking bar 7 is locked by catch 9 in solid lines.

Figs. 5 and 6 show the clip 1 gripping a document 4a which is considerably thicker than the document 4 of Fig. 4. To accommodate the thicker document 4a, both the resilient gripping arms 11 and the locking bar 7 have been bent upwardly. As seen in Figs. 4 and 6, the gripping arm 11 preferably has an upwardly facing loop so that as its free end is bent upwardly, its intermediate portion and its end connected to locking bar 7 remain clear'of the gripped documents. As the resilient center portion of locking bar 7 is bent upwardly, free end slides in catch 9 as necessary to provide the additional length needed at the raised center.

Another embodiment of the clip is shown in Figs. 9 and 10 which is adapted to grip documents from medium to great thickness. The locking bar 7a is bowed to provide an initial space between gripping fingers 12 and mounting plate 5a. A level portion 7b is provided in locking arm 7a adjacent to catch 9a to allow lateral motion of the free end 10a of locking arm 7a as its center is bent upwardly by thick documents. A stop to help position the gripped documents is shown formed by an upwardly turned edge of mounting plate 511. In opening clips which have resilient grips 14 with teeth 17, the teeth tend to impede the movement of locking bar 7 from beneath catch 9, as the teeth 17 are designed to prevent relative motion between the documents and the clamping member in this direction. A slight extra pressure on locking bar 7 is required in this case, however the pressure does not injure the documents, as they are held in shape by mounting plate 5, catch 9 or stop 20, hinge 8, and the grips 14 while the grips 14 slide over the document surface a sufficient distance to allow the release of locking bar 7 from catch 9.

It can be seen that the present invention provides an improved binding clip adapted to detachably fasten documents into a folder or binder without in any way marking or marring the documents. No perforations are necessary in the bound material and the clip is readily and simply operated with one hand to'insert or remove documents. The simple and rugged catch action has no small moving parts and the entire clip itself has only a single moving part. The clip maybe used to accommodate documents in a wide range of thicknesses without any adjustment, as it automatically adjusts itself to the varying thicknesses. The clip is also of relatively simple design and it therefore may be easily and inexpensively produced for wide usage wherever a binding clip is needed.

As various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without sacrificing any of its advantages, it is to be understood that all matter herein is .to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus describedv my invention, I claim:

1. A binding clip comprising a mounting plate, a clamping member pivotally connected at one end to said mounting plate for swinging movement toward andaway from one face of said plate and for limited swinging movement generally parallel to said plate, a catch on said mounting plate having an open side whereby said clamping member may be swung beneath a portion of said catch to lock said clamping member in a. position adjacent to said mounting plate, and a resilient grip on said'clamping member having a resilient gripping surface adapted to contact a document surface when said clamping member is swung adjacent to said mounting plate, said gripping surface of said resilient grip comprising one or more elongated pointed teeth inclined toward said catch whereby it slides more freely across thedocument as said clamping member is swung beneath said catch than when the relative motion between the document and the clamping member is in an opposite direction.

2. A binding clip comprising a fiat mounting plate adapted to connect the clip to an article supporting surface, a one-piece clamping member pivotally connected at one end to said mounting plate for a first swinging motion in a plane generally perpendicular to said mounting plate, a catch on said mounting plate having an open side adapted to receive the free end of said clamping member therein, said pivotal connection between said clamping member and said mounting plate comprising a relatively loose pivotal coupling whereby said clamping member-has a limited second motion in a plane generally parallel to the plane of said fiat mounting plate when said clamping member is swung adjacent thereto whereby said clamping member may be moved into the open side of said catch, and a resilient gripping means on said clamping member adapted to engage articles on the article supporting surface adjacent to said mounting plate. 3. The binding clip as defined in claim 2 in which said resilient gripping means comprises a resilient gripping surface having a plurality of elongated pointed teeth inclined toward said catch whereby it slides more freely across the document as said clamping member is swung beneath said catch than when the relative motionbetween the document and the clamping member is in an opposite direction.

References Cited in the file of this patent V UNITED STATES PATENTS Chauvin Nov. 27, 1951 

